Meaning & Origins

English: habitational name from any of various places so called, for example in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Hampshire, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire. It has been established that wīchām was an Old English term for a settlement (Old English hām) associated with a Romano-British town, wīc in this case being an adaptation of Latin vicus. Childswickham in Gloucestershire bears a British name with a different etymology. The surname is now also common in Ireland, where it was taken in the 17th century.